TV5 is giving away 20 million pesos worth of prizes to be divided between the two winners of their newest talent search program, Artista Academy.

The grand audition on June 19 at the Araneta Coliseum is open to all aspiring stars from 16 to 21 years old.

The 20-million-pesos worth of prizes will be shared equally by one male and one female grand winner.

Each winner will get one million pesos in cash, a guaranteed contract with TV5 worth 5 million pesos, a brand new car, a brand new condo unit, and a lead role in a teleserye.

The newly renamed TV5 Talent Center, now headed by Direk Mac Alejandre, has partnered with Wilma Galvante’s Asian Academy of Television Arts to train 16 students to become the next big stars.

TV5 executive, Perci Intalan explained, “Artista Academy is a project that was born out of TV5 taking a look at our roster of talents.”

“We already, and everybody’s talking about this, we’ve attracted a lot of the top talents in the industry and we’re very proud to be working with them.

“However, and this is something that we’ve also heard from you guys, from our friends from the press, you’ve always been asking us, when are we going to invest in looking for new talents out there, kasi ang dami.

“This is the answer to that. We decided that it’s high time that TV5 takes a look at the top talents, the untapped talent out there and invest in them to join our roster of Kapatid stars.

“So, we’re out to make our roster of stars even bigger this year by taking a look at who’s out there and launching what is the biggest talent search that’s ever been mounted on television.”

In Direk Mac’s words, “Gusto ko lang sabihin sa inyo na lahat kami sa TV5 Talent Center at lahat kami na bumubuo ng Artista Academy ay excited and we are also looking forward to the big campaign that is the launch of Artista Academy.

“Tumataya ang TV5 sa isang ambisyosong proyektong tulad nito sapagkat kami po sa TV5 ay naniniwala na ang fuselage, ang malaking bahagi ng buhay ng network at ng industriya ay ang mga talents.

“Mandato ng network ang patuloy na magdiskubre at magdevelop ng talent, walang tigil hanggang sa nabubuhay ang industriya ng telebisyon.”

How is Artista Academy different from all other existing talent searches?

Perci answered, “Well the big difference is our partnership with the AATA, [which] is a real academy, a real institution that will train our sixteen contestants, our sixteen students.